Last Best Hope of Earth

Mark E. Neely, Jr., is McCabe-Greer Professor of the History of the Civil War Era at Pennsylvania State University and the author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties.

All of Neely’s strengths come into play here, not only his deep knowledge of Lincoln’s writings and positions but also his broader grasp of the issues and figures, both major and minor, of the period… In a time when the sense of America as a land of opportunity is being lost, when politicians are a despised class and when the American system itself is increasingly called into question, Abraham Lincoln still has much to say to us. Mark Neely’s book will help us to hear him.

• 1. Peculiar Ambition 2. Republican Robe 3. Commander in Chief 4. Emancipation 5. A Free People Conduct a Long War 6. Politics as Usual 7. Fate Notes Index